Alan Reed Does The Double

The last few weeks have seen Tania winning the Friday Freezeout for her third time, followed by Alan Reed winning the last two weeks in a row, can he follow this up this Friday with a Hatrick?  The race for top spot has been getting closer and more competitive with Alan Mason, Alan Reed, Jason Fraser and Myself now all within 6 points of each other.  Closely following behind is Diamond Dave who has been the most consistent player so far making the most final tables this season.

A reminder to everyone the league will run until the end of the year, so there is plenty of time to make it to the top ten and play off for a UK Poker Package.

British Poker Awards Announced

The second annual British poker awards were held recently and it was no surprise that Jake Cody was a clear and deserved winner, his run over the last 18 months has been a dream come true, and any poker player would love to have even one of his amazing results in that time.  Not only was he named “Best Tournament Player” he also walked away with the prestigious “Player of the Year” award, his ‘Triple crown’ achievement helped him with the votes as he joined an elite group of players who have won an EPT, a WPT & a WSOP crown, in addition at the age of 22 he is also the youngest player ever to achieve this.  Here is a list of the players and awards:-

BEST INTERNATIONAL PLAYER: Jason Mercier
BEST TOURNAMENT PLAYER: Jake Cody
BEST CASH PLAYER: Sam Trickett
BEST MIXED GAME PLAYER: Richard Ashby
BEST POT LIMIT OMAHA (PLO) PLAYER: J P Kelly
BEST ONLINE PLAYER: Chris Moorman
BEST POKER FORUM: TwoPlusTwo.com
BEST BLOGGER: Neil Channing’s Blackbelt Poker Blog
BEST SOCIAL MEDIA USER: Vicky Coren
BEST POKER LEAGUE: Club72 Poker Friday Freezeout
POKER PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR: Kara Scott
OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO POKER: John Duthie
BEST BREAKOUT PLAYER: Matt Perrins
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Roy Houghton
PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Jake Cody

Looking at the list of winners it highlights the fantastic opportunities there are to go and play in the UK events on offer in Jersey.  Winning a package to these really gives you the chance to play against some of the best players in Britain and from around the world.  The last two I have played at the GUKPT Blackpool and the UKIPT Manchester, players such as Jake Cody, J.P Kelly, Neil Channing were at them all, so if you do get the opportunity to go and play it is a great opportunity to improve your game and learn from the pro’s.

Matt Perrins who won the “Best Breakout Player”, reminds me of the Blackpool event I played in.  I was running reasonably well and at one stage I was 13th in chips on day1b of the event, as players got knocked out Matt Perrins joined my table, at the time we were probably a similar chip stack, but he came with a very aggressive game raising frequently with both premium and average hands.  It was against him I made the only mistake I had done the entire tournament, that one hand where you know if you had played it differently it would have changed my tournament.  Perrins had raised as he had been doing from an early position, as I was in the small blind I called with Ace, 7 suited (a hand I was not really playing up until that point as I was playing a solid tight game).  When the flop came 7, 4 2 he continuation bet the flop after I checked.  I thought I was well ahead as I had put him on something like KQ however I only called - when a ten hit the turn we both checked and the river brought another 2, I checked and he over bet the pot, after thinking about it I still thought my 7 was good and made the call only to see he had Q,10 and had a bigger two pair.  I knew after the hand I played it terribly, I should have raised his bet on the flop and found out where I was, and even then I normally wouldn’t have been involved and certainly not for the big amount I lost in that hand.  I never really recovered from that loss, I still made day 2 however was a really short stack, but after doubling up very early on Day 2 and then found myself all in with Pocket Aces against Jacks I was going to have a healthy stack, the dealer however had other ideas and cruelly put a Jack on the turn and I was out.  Although this was a bad beat I remembered the hand against Perrins more as it was the one I had played badly, hopefully this November in Blackpool I will run a little better.

Lord Whoop Whoop Whipp takes down round 8

Another week and another points haul for ‘The Chef’ helped him extend his lead at the top of the league, he is now 12 points clear from myself who crept into second place with our 3^rd and 4^th place finishes.  The final two were Warren Mudge and Whippy, Warren had been pretty heavily stacked from the start of the final table hence must have been dominating his early tables pretty well.  Whippy came to the final table as a relative short stack and built his way from there, I found myself with the chance of taking him out when I called his all-in with Pocket Jacks, but he had AK and the flop gave him two pair, and he went on a great run from there.

I ended up 4^th after running KQ suited into Warrens Aces and the Chef followed losing out to Warren too.  The heads up battle lasted quite a while with the chip lead changing between both of them however, Lord Whipp was the eventual winner.

There is plenty of time for anyone to make the top 10 of the league, and with new players turning out each week anyone who goes on a good run of final table appearances will make the shootout for one of the two FREE UKIPT packages on offer, see you at the tables.....